Detroit Public Schools honors Volunteer Reading Corps with a picnic on Belle Isle

Hundreds of members of Detroit Public Schools’ Volunteer Reading Corps turned out on Belle Isle on Aug. 27 to celebrate the successes of the past year, mingle with others from some of the 130 municipalities who have pledged their time, and re-commit to a school for the coming year. More than 5,500 people have pledged their time to tutor.

DPS encouraged volunteers to bring a friend who was also willing to sign up to tutor and populate the pre-kindergarten classes of 2010-11 to make the upcoming year as successful as the inaugural year of the Volunteer Reading Corps. The picnic was funded by the Skillman Foundation and the Detroit Free Press and supported by the Detroit Tigers, who provided free tickets to volunteers, on a first-come, first-served basis.

“It is the district’s goal to have every third-grader reading at grade level by 2015, and DPS is excited to tout the Volunteer Reading Corps to parents as one of the reasons why they should send their children to Detroit Public Schools,” said Emergency Financial Manager Robert Bobb. “Every preschool student will have a tutor this year.” Bobb added that volunteers will be in schools in the first month of classes.